Eugene Robinson | NSA may be out of control

8:07 PM,
Oct. 29, 2013

Eugene Robinson

Written by

Eugene Robinson
Columnist

WASHINGTON - Let's get this straight: The National Security Agency snooped on the cellphone conversations of German Chancellor Angela Merkel? Perhaps for as long as a decade? And President Obama didn't know a thing about it?

Either somebody's lying or Obama needs to acknowledge that the NSA, in its quest for omniscience beyond anything Orwell could have imagined, is simply out of control.

The White House has not denied news reports - courtesy of disclosures by whistleblower Edward Snowden - that the spy agency eavesdropped on Merkel's phone calls. Press secretary Jay Carney said that "the ...